Samsung is researching a system that would allow consumers to use thought control on a tabletcomputer, according to published reports.
Together with Roozbeh Jafari, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, the company is testing how sensors and brainwaves could let users turn on a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, launch applications, select contacts or choose songs from playlists.
The research is part of Samsung’s efforts to find new ways to interact with mobile devices.
“This is the same idea as Google Glass and it looks gimmicky right now, but if they do it right and they come up with a good strategy, it will have some legs because the world is moving towards more gesture-controlled user interfaces,” Julien Blin, a directing analyst at Infonetics told us.
Samsung has “probably been working on the project for a couple of years now and they’re only just talking about it,” Blin said.
Samsung’s try things out requires test subjects to help wear a cap studded along with electrodes. Conventional electrodes have to be wet, or require the test subjects’ scalp to get smeared with a liquid gel to improve conductivity. They can use up to 45 minutes to apply.
However, the electrodes used in Samsung’s research, which were created by Jafari, are reportedly dry in addition to take about 10 minutes to set up.
The dry electrodes create lower signal quality, but Jafari is implementing improving brain signal processing.
For the tablet control experiment, the researchers monitored well-known brain activity styles that happen when people see repetitive visual styles. They found that examination subjects could launch a software and make selections within it by paying attention to an icon blinking in a certain frequency.
It appears that this researchers are building on the fact lights flashing on in addition to off at certain frequencies could cause epileptic seizures, or can easily otherwise impact neural characteristics. “That’s how they are synchronizing the machine with the brain, ” Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, told us.
Samsung has joined a protracted line of organizations looking into using thoughts to regulate devices of one sort or maybe another.
The University of California at Berkeley is working on technology that would let pc owners use thoughts to enter in passwords. That process uses the NeuroSky Mindset, a Bluetooth headset that costs about US$100 to buy.
Brown University in February unveiled a wireless, fully implantable brain sensor which includes worked well in animal models for greater than a year. The broadband device continues to be implanted in three pigs along with three rhesus monkeys. However, the Brown device does get scorching, and has sparked some questions on health grounds.
Earlier this month, the BRAIN (Brain Exploration through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Effort, which will focus on understanding the mental faculties, was the subject of a great announcement from President Obama. That project is concentrated on helping researchers find new approaches to treat, cure and prevent brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and upsetting brain injury.
The U. S. National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Studies Agency (DARPA), and the National Science Foundation will kick in about $100 million in research beginning in fiscal year 2014 for the mind initiative.
“If you can link straight away to the brain, you can eliminate most of the delay [between thinking of any motion and actually moving], delivering significant advantages in managing weapons systems, accident avoidance, and for several kinds of sports, ” Enderle mentioned.
“Now we’re beginning to use eye-tracking technology instead of gestures, and the next progression is using thought waves, inches Blin said. “It won’t happen any moment soon. You’re looking two, few years down the road. inches.
